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Giffords Is Released From the Hospital

By Marc Lacey June 15, 2011 6:11 pmJune 15, 2011 6:11 pm

TUCSON, Ariz. — More than five months after being shot point-blank in the head, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was released Wednesday from a Houston rehabilitation hospital where she had been relearning how to walk and talk, hospital officials said.

Her rehab at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research Memorial Hermann will continue, although she will be an outpatient who commutes daily from the home that her astronaut husband, Mark E. Kelly, has in League City, Tex., near Houston. A round-the-clock caregiver will also be stationed at the house with her.

Her discharge from the hospital represents another major milestone in the recovery of Ms. Giffords, who was shot at close range on Jan. 8 by a gunman who sprayed the crowd at a constituent event she was holding outside a Tucson supermarket, killing six people and injuring more than a dozen others.
“Congresswoman Giffords has shown clear, continuous improvement from the moment she arrived at T.I.R.R. five months ago,” said Dr. Gerard Francisco, the hospital’s chief medical officer. “We are very excited that she has reached the next phase of her rehabilitation and can begin outpatient treatment. We have no doubt that she will continue to make significant strides in her recovery.”

The congresswoman’s husband said the time in the hospital had been tough on his wife.

“Anyone who knows Gabby knows that she loves being outside,” Mr. Kelly said. “Living and working in a rehab facility for five months straight has been especially challenging for her. She will still go to T.I.R.R. each day, but from now on, when she finishes rehab, she will be with her family.”

Ms. Giffords’s staff, meanwhile, said she was elated by the move.

“The treatment she’s been receiving has been world class,” said C. J. Karamargin, her press secretary. “But who wants to live in a hospital?”

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